"I'll carry her, and Scout can pull my bags." Jeremy tells his father. I hear no response — I assume his dad nodded — and then the blankets are wrapped tighter around me and I'm being moved away from whatever soft thing I was lying on. I think it was an air mattress but I couldn't move around enough to tell.
"Ready?" The dad asks.
"Yep!" And then we start moving. It was bouncy at first, and so uneven it was almost painful, but after a while I get used to it. Except for this horrible noise. It's almost scratchy, but there's a lot of loud rustling.
"What's that noise?" I whisper and the boy loosens his hold on me ever so slightly.
"Hey, you can talk now!" I shiver, but I'm able to nod at him. "That noise is my dog, Scout. Since I'm carrying you, he's dragging me stuff."
"Okay." I say softly before my eyelids drop and I'm out cold once again.
When I wake, I'm not being carried anymore, everything is still. I'm back on the air mattress covered in heavy warm blankets. The sound of a dying fire's crackling comes from my left. But no people sounds can be heard.
"Hello?" I try. No answer. "Hello?!" I call louder this time.
"I'm here, I'm here." Jeremy's voice appears from nowhere. "It's the middle of the night, girl. Go back to sleep, we'll figure things out in the morning, okay?"
I sigh and roll over. My hand touches the forest soil and I realize I rolled slightly too far. After shifting slightly on the mattress, I'm able to close my eyes and be swept off into nothingness.
"Morning!" A voice starts me out of sleep.
"Mohnhnh." I grumble softly, making Jeremy laugh.
"Are you hungry? We made some oatmeal if you want it."
I sat up, pulling the blankets tightly around me. "Only if there's enough." I'd barely finished speaking when a warm bowl was placed in my lap. "Oh! Thank you."
"You're welcome." If I had to, I'd bet he's smiling.
Finding the spoon was more difficult than I expected, and I can feel the boy's gaze on me the entire time. When I find it, resting against the edge of the bowl, I shovel spoonful after spoonful into my mouth. Yikes, I probably look like a wild animal.
"There's water on the ground for you." Jeremy says nicely before I hear his footsteps getting quieter against the frosted soil. When the footsteps stop, loud and obnoxious crunching sound replaces it. "I got the tent, Dad!"
"Thanks, Jeremy!" His father calls back.
I decide to try and find the water. I get myself to my hands and knees, still on the mattress, and slowly feel alongside the edges of it on the soil. When I notice the crinkling and crunching noises has stopped, I lift my head up, loose my concentration, and roll off the air mattress onto the cold, hard ground. "Ow." I grumble.
"Oh my goodness!" The father cries and suddenly I feel his hands under my arms and he lifts me back onto the mattress.
"Sorry, I was just trying to find the water." I apologize for the inconvenience.
"Couldn't you see it was right here?"
I sigh and shake my head. Jeremy's awed voice joins the conversation, "She couldn't dad. She couldn't because she's blind. Right?" He directs the question at me and I nod slowly.
"He's right. I'm blind. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but I thought I'd make it obvious soon enough. There's only so much I can do on my own."
"But your eyes are clear!" The dad exclaims in confusion, but I hear a hint of awe underneath.
"Clear?" I ask, shocked. Flicker told me my eyes are blue!
He laughs, "Not the color. I just mean when people are blind, often times their eyes become cloudy. Like a white haze over their pupils."
I lift my lips in a smile, understanding his confusion now. "Not when we're born blind. Cloudiness happens when the victim becomes blind through an event in our life. When born blind, we appear normal." I tell them. I'm not actually sure if that's completely true for humans, but that's what I grew up hearing from the werewolves. Plus, it seemed to satisfy them because there were no more questions after that. Jeremy told me how cool he thought the whole thing was and the dad was impressed that I'd made it as far as I did through the woods like that.
And then we're off again. Scout the dog is dragging supplies and Jeremy is carrying me, just like before. "You know, I'm not dying of hypothermia anymore; and I know how to walk." I tell him and he chuckles.
"I feel safer carrying you at this point. Especially because. . ." He trails off, his voice changing tone. I know that tone.
"What? Because now you know I'm blind? It hasn't stopped me before, Jeremy." I hear his sharp breath intake and I continue fast to cut him off. "But I get it. You don't want me to slow you guys down. That's fine."
His hold tightens around me and I purse my lips together. We continue on in silence for a while, and I focus on the sounds of the woods: the half-bare branches knocking and scraping against each other like they're in a war, battling as winter slowly approaches. Soon, I tune the rhythm and rocking of Jeremy's steps into the knocking of wood above and around us.
"Ivory, I'm sorry."
"Ivory?" I snap my attention back to the boy carrying me. "Where did you get that?"
"Oh, well you never said your name properly and we didn't want to pressure you anymore and I heard you say it in your sleep. I assumed it was your name. Was I wrong? I'm so sorry!"
I shook my head, slightly confused. "Ivory is my sister. I'm Indigo." I tell him but my mind isn't on our conversation anymore. Why would I be saying my sister's name in my sleep? I mean it's not like I kissed her or anything, she was a jerk to me most of the time! If anything, it would be Flicker I'm dreaming about. But Ivy? What the heck?!
A loud bark echoes near me, jarring me from my thoughts, and Jeremy shushes his dog. I feel the rhythm of his walk change and I realize we're on flat ground. Man made flat to be specific; concrete. Around ten minutes later, with a few turns here and there, Scout barks twice this time, letting us all know how excited he his about something.
I hear the creak of a screen door and then Jeremy's dad shouts, "We're home!"
YOU ARE READING
Blind & Broken
Người sóiIndigo Summers has been kept in the dark her entire life. Literally. Born blind, and a runt, she's not the Snow Crest Pack's favorite member. With a father dead, a mother on the verge of insanity, and a twin who despises her, Indie is alone in the w...